The IT Nerd

The hits to Elon Musk and Twitter keeps coming. The latest hit is being reported by The Verge and it’s a big hit:

Omnicom, one of the world’s biggest ad firms, representing brands like McDonald’s, Apple, and PepsiCo, is recommending clients pause spending on Twitter, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

Omnicom Media Group is recommending clients “pause activity on Twitter in the short term,” according to a note titled “Twitter – Continued Brand Safety Concerns.” The memo cites recent events in the last few days that have “potential serious implications” for brands running ads on the platform.

The memo cites the deep layoffs of Twitter trust and safety teams, the resignations of high-profile executives, and the slew of “verified” impersonation accounts as being key issues for advertisers. There is “evidence that the risk to our clients’ brand safety has risen sharply to a level most would find unacceptable,” the memo reads. “We recommend pausing activity on Twitter in the short term until the platform can prove it has reintroduced safeguards to an acceptable level and has regained control of its environment.”

The memo goes on to say that Omnicom has “formally requested that Twitter assure us that these issues will not impact compliant processes, operations, products, brand safety and client investment on the platform in any way” but that “seemingly due to the lack of senior leadership now in these areas, Twitter has not been able to give those assurances.”

I have said this for a while. Elon needs to assure advertisers that Twitter is a safe place for brands to be on. Currently that isn’t the case and Musk hasn’t done nearly enough to convince advertisers otherwise. That means that since Twitter is highly dependent on advertising, an ad agency like Omnicom can effectively kill Twitter if their clients pull out of advertising on Twitter. Thus it’s now Elon Musk’s Rubicon moment. He has one shot at doing something meaningful to save Twitter and avoid costing himself $44 billion. If he succeeds at dealing with Omnicom’s concerns, he has a lifeline. If he doesn’t succeed at dealing with Omnicom’s concerns, Twitter is dead. It’s that simple.

Your move Elon.

This entry was posted on November 12, 2022 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.